Iceland

Iceland was originally one of those places that my husband kept mentioning he wanted to go to eventually, and I would just nod my head and say okay but never really gave it much consideration. Until… I got an email about a year and a half ago from Tripadvisor on Top 10 Most Unique Beaches (or something to that effect) and they included a picture of the black sand beach by Jökulsárlón. All of a sudden Iceland skyrocketed in my list of places to visit. I then entertained myself for hours shortly after Googling Iceland itineraries and travel blogs and pictures, and needless to say I was hooked on the country and was obsessed with getting there ASAP.

I knew that I wanted my first visit to Iceland to be in the summer though of course that’s when everyone else wants to go as well. After visiting there, we will definitely go back at some point and perhaps in the winter (as it is one of the more milder locations in the winter) to see the Northern Lights. But for the first time there, I wanted to do a full out road trip around the country the first visit to get a good overview of the country. I had read in all the guide books and Tripadvisor that you can’t do a Ring Road road trip in a week, that you need at least 10-14 days to really see the country. And while I no doubt believe that would be better, we only had a week of vacation to take. So we did a Ring Road trip in 7.5 days and it worked for us. We weren’t ever rushed anywhere and we hit most of the places on our must see/stop list. Would I recommend doing a Ring Road Trip over 7 days not in the summer? Probably not unless you want to be driving at night, but in the summer with endless daylight it was totally fine.